Aftermath of Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting

I am in concurrence here. Another great article by the Wash Post. I have joined the organization, Bend the Arc, and happily signed their statement asking Trump to stay out of our beautiful city. This organization is a membership of “Progressive Jews” who believe in the value and dignity of all human beings.

They do seem to support “Democrats.” I’m not so sure the Democratic party is necessarily the side to be on. I don’t think this is a left vs right problem. I think hatred against labeled people, whether the label is race, ethnicity, gender, or that you think the person is inferior in some way, runs deeper than this party or that party. Both parties are guilty of exclusion, snobbery, classism, fat phobia, ageism, and so on. All those isms we don’t want to think about. The Republicans are guilty for sure. It’s just that the Dems are less likely to admit it.

Don’t even bother listening to the entire video. You might want to skip to the end, though, or to the last 20 minutes where he gets kinda preachy, which is way off topic to say the least. I feel that he does have good intentions. However, I do not “agree” with Mike Adams. I put agree in quotation marks here. It’s not that I agree or disagree with Mike Adams. His logic isn’t there for the most part. If you listen to the beginning and into the first 20 minutes or so, you’ll hear the skewed logic typical of Adams. You’ll hear mostly generalizations that are reflective of gross short-sightedness. Much of what he says about Judaism simply isn’t true or reveals his ignorance of Jewish culture and of our history.

He equates “Israel” with “Judaism.” These are not the same. Many Jews do not agree with Israeli politics. Some do. We are on all sides of the fence when it comes to Middle Eastern politics. Has he ever been to a real bona fide synagogue? If he were to show up, goy that he is, he would hear us arguing over Israel. That was my childhood. Mom and Dad invited other couples over for mini-parties. Late at night they argued endlessly, and that, in effect, lengthened the Six Day War to more like Six Years.

Mike Adams also generalizes about the Left. He claims that “Trump-haters,” all Trump-haters, are against freedom of speech. I am not a Trump-hater. I don’t like the idea of hating human beings. I don’t hate my ex-shrink and I do not believe she is “evil.” I don’t believe there is such a thing as “evil people.” I don’t believe people become “possessed” with the devil and I don’t believe there’s a devil named “ED” that possesses young, vulnerable patients (ED being the treatment-invented acronym for “eating disorder,” just another way to brainwash young people into obeying!).

I do know that psychiatry is corrupt because of psychiatry’s ties with the pharmaceutical companies, because the DSM is not scientific and was not written in a scientific or organized manner (money and pharma-driven) and also, I know that psychiatry’s clout in the courts based on opinion only is not valid and should be struck down. The fact that psychiatry’s “patients” are often unwilling and have to be forced, coerced, or have to have information withheld from them to get them to comply is further reason to know that psychiatry is a corrupt practice. I am also concerned that the cure rate is so low, quality of life for many victims of psychiatry is pitiful, and the death rate is shockingly high.

Do I hate my ex-shrink? No. She fell for it. I fell for it. We all fell for it, didn’t we? I don’t think we should be turning our anger toward a human being. Let’s just turn the tide. If that means getting Trump out of office, let’s get Trump out of office without hating him as a human being. I don’t think he is evil, simply because I don’t believe any human is evil.

Let’s look at that statement. “You are evil.” This is the kind of thing a child might say. That is how kids think. If an adult says it, that adult is likely traumatized or possibly just getting over being pissed off. Adults resort to kid thinking when they are traumatized or pissed.

When you think about it, is any human truly evil? There are people who didn’t have very good childhoods or had a bad time growing up, or fell into the wrong crowd and maybe developed bad habits or skewed values. Are they truly evil, or is there an issue with their sense of morals or their education or the fact that they continue to break the law or hurt others? These folks can learn better habits, can they not? I believe so.

Is someone who litters “evil”? Is a smoker “evil”? What about a person who eats meat? What about a person who uses swear words? What about an atheist? A person who is a Christian? A non-Christian? A Jehovah’s Witness? A Muslim? Do you see what I am getting at? Depending on context, I have heard all of the above and more called “evil” at various times in various social situations. I have heard other words used, such as “heretics,” and so on.

Is a racist evil? I don’t think so. I had a friend who was racist. A couple of friends. Decades ago I had this really good friend who suddenly started talking racist. I was shocked. I had never heard her say stuff like that before. Was she drunk? High? Actually, I think she was on psych drugs, which may have caused it, but at the time I didn’t consider this. This was over the phone. I pretended it was a bad connection. I said, “What?” just to make sure I heard her right. Yes, I had heard her right.

Yikes! What now? As it turned out the decision was made for me. We parted ways for another reason. She ended up getting busy so we barely communicated after that. I was relieved!

Did I think my beloved friend was evil? No! Had she turned evil? No! What had happened? Now, of course, in hindsight, I’m fairly sure the drugs had something to do with it. I don’t think it was “bad upbringing.” It might have been her new boyfriend swaying her to think that way. Love, or what we think is love, can mess badly with our heads.

On the other hand, I had a brand new friend around 2012 who turned out to say some flagrantly racist things in a conversation and after I heard that I saw no reason to continue the relationship so I immediately ended it. Was he evil? No, just a very ignorant person and unpleasant to be around.

I don’t think Trump is evil. I don’t think he should be in office, though. He is not doing a good job. My neighbor, and possibly your neighbor, could do better. How about Mister Rogers? He’s from Pittsburgh! If he were still with us I think he would do great. If I were working in the presidential HR office I would surely fire Trump. Only I am not sure how to fire anyone. Having been fired in the past I’m afraid I’d be too nice about it.

People at my workplace get routine threats weekly. We get these auto-generated notices saying that if we don’t shape up, we’re outa there. Does Trump get these threats? “If you don’t stop those idiotic Tweets, you’re going to have to back to the unemployment line.” Likely not.

I have always believed in Freedom of Speech. I have never felt that Freedom of Speech meant that I welcome racist speech, antisemitic speech, and DSM-loving speech, since the DSM is a book touting eugenics. To me, Freedom of Speech means I am free to tell my story, to say what happened to me when I was a patient without retaliation, without being told I am delusional and that it never happened, without being told “Time’s up!” because the listener doesn’t like what I am saying, and without being told, “That isn’t very important” or being accused of having a “persecution complex.” Do people not realize the hard time I have gone through because I chose to blow the whistle? Either way, all of these nasty things people say are means of silencing. All are ways of countering Freedom of Speech.

There’s a flip side to Freedom of Speech. Apparently it can be taken too far, and has been. Moderators on forums deal with this all the time. I am glad I am not a moderator!

One more thing. I don’t like it when shooters are called “deranged.” Is anyone “deranged”? Many school shooters are just suffering from the effects of drugs, either on drugs or in withdrawal. Most don’t even know they are suffering withdrawal from these drugs. Often they’re in withdrawal from SSRI antidepressants, which can last for a very long time. Their families do not know and when these young people are autopsied there are no SSRI drugs in their bodies but their brain cells are still not yet recovered from the drugs. We know that many take a long time to get over SSRI drugs (we know this from people who are alive to tell the story). In fact, according to data just about every school shooter was on SSRI drugs. There’s a letter circulating around that’s right now being sent to Ben Carey, a prominent journalist. Those affected by psych drugs are hoping he gets this written up into one of the major papers.

No, I am not saying these drugs are evil. I’m not going to make similar sweeping generalizations to what Mike Adams makes and make a fool of myself. I am not saying they don’t help some people. I am saying that just about all school shooters were on these drugs. Please take note.

Freedom of Speech also means please don’t put words into my mouth. Please don’t re-word what I have said and then, draw false conclusions about character defects I may or may not have. I didn’t say “all drugs are evil.” Re-wording what a person says and subsequently drawing false conclusions means you have not properly read what I wrote and you’ve formed an opinion of me based on your own biases. Mike Adams might have said that all drugs are evil, but I don’t endorse Mike Adams. I did not say “Everything Mike Adams says is incorrect,” either. Be careful what you accuse me of saying.

I won’t call anyone deranged. I will not call an antisemite deranged either. I feel that calling a human being deranged is not logical, but calling their ideas “deranged” or possibly “antisocial” might be more appropriate. (Yes I know the Scientologists use the word “evil” a lot!) But I will not call a human being “deranged.” You can, but I will not.

Freedom of Speech means I reserve the right to use a word, or to refrain from using that word. Freedom of Speech also means I have the right to think, believe, hope, or dream anything I want, or to remain still.

Through writing, public speaking, art, poetry, journalism, music. And getting the word out into the schools. Whitaker’s book alone has been a lifesaver for many people. Getting his book into libraries and bookstores, sending it to politicians, teachers, guidance counselors.